In this episode, Will Beattie speaks with the co-editors of a special issue of Speculum: A journal of Medieval Studies (100.1) that coincides with the centennial of the Medieval Academy of America. Together, Roland Betancourt, Karla Mallette, and Will reflect on one hundred years of medieval studies and what the future may hold for the field.

Have you ever Googled something about the Middle Ages? Clicked a link to find out the best medieval books of 2024? If so, then you have probably found yourself on Medievalists.net at some point. In this episode, Reed and Loren interview the site’s co-founder, Peter Konieczny, to find out the history of the media outlet and what goes into building content for it.

For more information, visit www.multiculturalmiddleages.com.

In this episode, art historian Christopher T. Richards chats with Jon and Reed about what we can learn from medieval theories of art-making and sexuality from illuminations found in manuscripts of the Ovide moralisé, an anonymous French poem composed in the fourteenth century.

For more information about this conversation, visit www.multiculturalmiddleages.com.

What knowledge exists about medieval peasants and their lives? How do we know what we know?

In this episode, Elías Carballido González explores various historical approaches to thinking about the peasantry, considers the state of the field in the present day, and discusses a handful of examples with a focus on northwest Iberia.

For more information about Elías, medieval peasants, or this podcast, visit www.multiculturalmiddleages.com.

In this episode, Andrew Albin and Andrew Kraebel, the editors of Speculum's essay cluster on the textual cult of fourteenth-century mystic Richard Rolle, chat with MMA series producer and host Jonathan Correa-Reyes about Rolle's life, his works, and the contemplative life that he practiced.

This episode is a collaboration with Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies.

For more information about Richard, Andrew, and Andrew, visit www.multiculturalmiddleages.com.

Art and politics have long been intertwined in Spain. From the early medieval Visigoths to the Umayyad Caliphate to the fall of Granada under Muhammad XII in 1492, political, cultural, and artistic landscapes were continually reshaped as successive groups took power. Ghadi Amer explores the relationship between politics and art movements in medieval Spain, focusing on the paintings of the Hall of Kings in Alhambra, Spain.

For more about Ghadi's research and this topic, visit www.multiculturalmiddleages.com.

In this episode, MMA series producer and host Reed O'Mara chats with organizers of and participants in Cosmic Ecologies: Animalities in Premodern Jewish Culture, a recent symposium held at Northwestern University and the Newberry Library. The conversation explores medieval Jewish art and culture, particularly cosmic ecologies and their continuities across the animal-human-divine-demonic spectrum. Special thanks to Elina Gertsman, David Shyovitz, Julie A. Harris, Beth Berkowitz, and Sara Offenberg.

For more about this topic and the speakers' research, visit www.multiculturalmiddleages.com.

Afghanistan today is often called medieval: “a broken 13th-century country” (Liam Fox), “delayed by a few centuries” (Thomas Barfield), ruled by “a medieval band of degenerate savages” (Senator Cotton). How did this label come to take hold, and where do we go from here? Join scholars Tanvir Ahmed and Sabauon Nasseri as they discuss how Afghanistan has been made out to be medieval from the British Empire to the War on Terror, and how Afghan historical writing offers multiple escapes from the historiographical trap.

For further reading and more information on Tanvir, Sabauon, and this topic, visit www.multiculturalmiddleages.com.